Max Ophüls: A Tribute

Max Ophüls: A Tribute

A filmmaker with a unique, inventive, and daring voice

Max Ophüls is considered to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. A filmmaker with a unique, inventive, and daring voice, who created bitter-sweet works that centered, for the most part, on female characters and their struggles against social constraints.

A woman, trying to provide for her young son, is forced to become a cabaret dancer. The reappearance of an ex-lover and the yearning to fulfill youthful emotions push her to lend money. A melodrama that is largely a prelude to what Ophüls will later do in Hollywood.

Prince Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, travels to a small Czech town and falls in love with a local countess. His father has other plans for him, but his mother and the memory of a family tragedy push towards love triumphing. A short victory, as the Prince is headed to Sarajevo….

A teenage girl falls for a gifted pianist and has his baby. She eventually marries the army man her parents wished her to marry, but her feeling will not wane. Ophüls blends the plot, protagonists, and his European style into a Hollywood product that became his most adored work.

Lucy will do anything for her family; so when a young man blackmails her for a murder which happened in her house, she spares no effort to close the case. Ophüls combines film noir and the family melodrama to fashion a film which reveals dark places in the American values system.

Ten episodes linked by a puppet master narrator in which the protagonists ride a sexual merry-go-round in the 19th century, with one partner always connecting to the next story. Ophüls’ witty adaptation of the Arthur Schnitzler play is a gratifying film.

A film, in three parts, about love, passion, death, and desperation – Don Juan attempts to hide the marks of time; a Madame visits her virgin niece; the tragic relationship between a painter and his model.

A senior officer’s wife sells her wedding earrings, only to receive them as a present from her lover. What seems like a simple plot twist gradually becomes a romantic drama. Ophüls puts the woman’s wishes against social norms and traditions, bringing forth an elegant, poignant, and astonishing cinematic experience.